Slowly and inexorably he parted from his fellows

'Both Stockhausen and Babbitt were interested in global time: they shared the High Modernist belief that time becomes space, and that one views a musical work, a work of art, as one object, very complex, which should be experienced somehow from above, moving through it but yet conscious of it as a whole, and with no particular sense of line pushing from moment to moment. The logic lies in the enormous planning of the temporal relationships in Gruppen, or the serial value in time-points, dynamics and registers in Babbitt's work' - Jonathan Harvey quoted by Arnold Whittall.
'The impression left by the school [Downside] was sufficient to have inspired a 1947 literary effort by Gysin - "Time and Brother Griphen" - a story about a "sad, brave" monk whose indulgence in chronodaedaly led to his discovery of an error in the calculation of time. Don Griphen resolved to live his own life according to his corrected measure. At first the difference was so minute that he appeared at meals or at devotions at the same time as his companions. Yet slowly and inexorably he parted from his fellows, drawn further away by time itself... He made great looping circles through the seemingly straight line of life in the monastery' - from John Geiger's life of Brion Gysin.
Jonathan Harvey talks about Stockhausen and global time in my streamed interview with him at 9' 45". Brion Gysin's High Mass in C minor with the choir boys nude is here.

Jonathan Harvey by Arnold Whittall is published by Faber (ISBN0571195814). Nothing is True but Everything is Permitted - The Life of Brion Gysin by John Geiger is published by The Disinformation Company Ltd (ISBN 1932857125). Both books were purchased. Images in montage are, of course, from top left clockwise, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, Brion Gysin and Jonathan Harvey. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk Also on Facebook and Twitter.

Comments

Dreamachine said…
Brion was incredible:

http://www.joujouka.org
http://www.briongysin.com
http://www.dreamachine.ca
http://www.flickerflicker.com
http://www.thebeathotelmovie.com
http://www.burroughsthemovie.com
http://www.johngeiger.net/flicker.htm
http://www.permugram.org
http://www.publicassemblage.com
http://languageisavirus.com/cutupmachine.html

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